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DECLARATIONS OF INDEPENDENCE:
FILM AND THE AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
by
Chris Cooling
____________________________________________________________________
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(CINEMA-TELEVISION (CRITICAL STUDIES))
May 2007
Copyright 2007 Chris Cooling

In this dissertation, the author investigates the American Independent Film, specifically its recent flourish from 1980 to the present. The argument is made that the narratives told about the Independent film of this era -- by the popular press, by academia, as well as by the films' makers -- are often more meaningful than the content of the films themselves. The author suggests that what makes this historical phase of Independent American filmmaking different from previous movements is an increased public awareness of these narratives as familiar and formulaic. The promotion of these films is increasingly apparent as a mythology -- a set of narratives America tells itself about itself. As a result, emphasis is placed on the cultural awareness of this mythology as a set of constructed narratives told to the public by a culture industry that profits from them. To begin, a series of case studies are analyzed. First, representations of the Sundance film festival are examined, with emphasis placed on the figure of its founder, Robert Redford. Next, three directors thought to embody the American Independent film at various points over the last twenty-five years are studied: Jim Jarmusch, Quentin Tarantino and Steven Soderbergh. Following these case studies, the methodology of American Studies is applied to the discourse of Independent film. The field's two simultaneous emphases -- on the interpretation of national self-mythologizing and the meta-critical awareness of its own impact as an academic field for the generation of such knowledge -- are used to consider the extent to which media promotion of Independent cinema has become a form of cultural authority that usurps traditional academic knowledge. Finally, the author considers new media technologies -- digital cinema, video games -- as the most recent manifestation of these narratives.; Video games are considered as a location for preserving American myths of the frontier within a virtual space, and digital filmmaking is analyzed as a means through which Independent and Hollywood filmmaking tropes are fluidly combined. The conclusion is thus drawn that such technologies offer a meaningful moment of synthesis that represents an end point for this movement of independence.

DECLARATIONS OF INDEPENDENCE:
FILM AND THE AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
by
Chris Cooling
____________________________________________________________________
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(CINEMA-TELEVISION (CRITICAL STUDIES))
May 2007
Copyright 2007 Chris Cooling